Otero County upgrades its website

Otero County's IT expert demonstrated features of the county's new website during the county commission's regular meeting Sept. 20.

Wes Colvin, information technology programmer/analyst with the county's IT department, said he's retired the county's old website and it will be gone by the end of the year, but users can presently access both the new and old versions of the county's website as they choose at www.co.otero.nm.us.

Colvin said the county's original website was deployed in the mid-1990s. The site started as a single Web page, but "ended up to be a mess" of over 2,200 files.

Colvin said when commissioners wanted to post videos of their meetings on the site, he found the software tools were too outdated to support the video files so he had to build a new website. In addition to the inability to post videos, Colvin found a host of problems with the old website -- not the least of which was the mess of 2,200 files. Some simple changes to the site could have tied up Colvin's time for a year.

"That just wasn't going to work," Colvin said. "The other thing is, only one person could work on the website so everything had to come through me."

Colvin said anyone who wanted to post something on the county's old website had to go through him, and he didn't want to be the only one in control of the site's content. He decided to change it so any county staff member could make changes to their section of the site without his assistance.

Colvin said real Web development is complex, and it would be unrealistic to assume each county department had their own Web designers.

Colvin said he separated content from presentation; he built a framework where any county staff member could upload content, but he wrote software to make the presentation. He said the site works fast because there are not unnecessary pictures and things that can take a long time to load on some computers.

Colvin said he used software written within the past three years to build the site, so it supports iPads, cellphones and "does all kinds of cool things."

"It's basically future-proof," Colvin said.

Colvin said the end result is that each department has the power to publish its own information for its target audience on the Internet with no need to consult with him. He noted this is helpful as the people who visit the county's website are not all the same -- they have a different need according to which department they need to visit.

Colvin said he wanted to make the site fast, clean and efficient, as well as punt the workload to other departments. He said creating the new website was a team effort since all of the departments contributed to making the website great, and he thanked all of the departments for their help.

Colvin demonstrated the website for commissioners on the county's flat screen television monitor for all to see. He clicked the county finance department link, explaining finance director Donna Brandon posted the information. He showed how users can find information about the county budget, various contractors working for the county and where money has been spent.

He clicked a few other links, explaining the different information available depending on which department's link is visited. He noted Gonzalo Estrada in the assessor's office posted plat maps on the site.

"If you want to know how a subdivision is laid out, it's all right there," Colvin said.

Colvin demonstrated some of the search capabilities under the assessor's office link. Users can look up all the real properties on 10th Street, for instance, or even enter a property owner's name to show all of the properties the person owns in the county.

Colvin said the information now available on the county's website significantly reduced the traffic going through the assessor's office since people can find the information they need online.

Colvin also demonstrated users can find information regarding the Otero County Detention Center, like how to provide an inmate with their medications, what the OCDC visitation schedule is and more.

Commission chairman and District 3 Commissioner Ronny Rardin added that relatives of people currently incarcerated at the county jail can even add money to their loved one's account via the county website.

Rardin said he finds the new county website easy to use, as well as simple for him to post information in the commission section.